AMDL Circle designs visitor centre for Carlo Scarpa's Brion tomb
Milan studio AMDL Circle has unveiled its design of a visitor centre for the Brion tomb in San Vito d'Altivole, Italy, created by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa.
Conceived by AMDL Circle as a "new threshold" for the renowned concrete memorial, the brick-wrapped pavilion will house a reception and cafe alongside exhibition and study space.
Scarpa was commissioned to design the Brion Cemetery, or Brion tomb, in 1968 by the widow of Giuseppe Brion, co-founder of electronics firm Brion-Vega. It is considered one of Scarpa's most significant projects.
The centre is being created in response to the growing number of visitors and will occupy an existing residential building on the site linked to the Scarpa-designed tomb by a tree-lined avenue.
According to AMDL Circle, the renovation aims to create a "liminal space" that will serve as a "contemplative" entrance to the Brion tomb.
"Carlo Scarpa's delicate work was difficult to represent in a suburban house," studio founder Michele De Lucchi said," said studio founder Michele De Lucchi.
"We had to create a space of decompression that would allow visitors to leave behind the traffic of the provincial road and enter the space of the sacred," he continued.
"We needed to make it a transitional architecture, as free from emphasis as possible, capable of a silent refinement, to establish a relationship not of competition, but of respectful dialogue with the monument."
Renders of the centre reveal the rectilinear brick structure topped with a thin, flat roof. It will be punctuated at its upper level by a grid of cruciform openings that will filter light and air through the interior.
Deliberately raw and weathered elements, such as wood-framed openings and unfinished walls, were chosen to complement the centre's red-brick walls.
AMDL Circle said it will design the interior as a "porous environment" with flexible interiors capable of accommodating different configurations and changes in function over time.
Once complete, the centre will house the reception and cafe at ground level. Below this, a concrete-lined basement level is set to contain an exhibition area dedicated to the memorial.
Study spaces for workshops will be held on the first floor, which is seen in the renders with wood-lined walls, red-toned flooring and wooden furniture.
The pavilion is currently under construction, set to be completed in November 2026. A landscaped garden, designed with landscape architect Camilla Zanarotti, will wrap around the centre.
Other visitor centres recently featured on Dezeen include one at the medieval Ightham Mote manor house in Kent, which London studio Reed Watts designed with an exposed timber and hempcrete structure, and a circular structure dedicated to Maiji Mountain in China by ZXD Architects and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design.
The renders are courtesy of AMDL Circle.
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